Cuavia Aceves

She hears a sigh and ruffling papers from behind her.

“Lena,” Alex said, trying to hide her frustration the best she could. “We’ve been over this for the last two hours. Do you think I would hide something from you?”

“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time.”

Shit. The snarky comment had left her mouth before she could stop it.

“I’m sorry Alex,” Lena says, exhaustion creeping up in her voice. “It was a low blow, even for me. It’s just that I can’t believe it. She looks… she looks so peaceful, so like herself.”

She can hear footsteps coming closer and is not surprised when two hands softly hold her shoulders to make her turn around.

Alex looks older than ever before. More than during those nights spent working  in Lena’s lab, intoxicated more often than not. More than in the mornings following those nights, when the CEO had to help settle the agent on the cot in the furthest corner of the room before waking her up with coffee when duty required her.

But more than that, she looks broken. As if the last hope that had kept her going all this time to bring her sister back had finally been snuffed out. 

“Okay Luthor, but that’s the last time for today. After that, I bring you back to your place so you rest. And please do actually rest, otherwise Kelly will have both of our skins.”

Thinking back on when the woman had left them two hours ago, exasperated beyond measure, Lena could absolutely imagine her coming for them and sedating them so they would finally rest. Or do something more permanent.

“This is such a mess,” Alex grumbles to herself, rubbing her face.

“You tell me,” Lena answers with an eyeroll. 

“Hey, no need to be a smartass. Everything went wrong and unfolded too fast for us to react immediately. Which is why you got injured.”

Lena softens her stance a bit.

“Alex, you have no reason to feel guilty over that. We had no reason to believe…”

“It’s my job to anticipate danger Lena. I’m trained to assess any situation that is alien related, and it was a gross oversight on my part to treat this one any differently.’’

Taking a strangled breath, she adds ‘‘I just never imagined Kara, my sister…’’ 

Silence falls on them, the only noise breaking it being the regular beeping of the machines linked to Kara unconscious form in the other room. 

Lena lets the minutes roll, leaving the other woman time to gather her thoughts, and giving herself time to burn every single detail of the broken hero in her memory.

Alex clears her throat, catching her attention again.

“Kara came through the portal about a minute after it stabilized. She stumbled through it, immediately crumpling to the floor,” Alex said, her face distant, as if replaying the scene in her mind.

“Of course it wasn’t really that surprising. I mean, we don’t know what she’s been through all these months. Did she have to defend herself, what access she had to food and water, …”

The sun lamps in Kara’s room turned on at that moment, giving the sleeping hero the energy needed to keep the healing process going. And ensuring that Lena couldn’t keep staring unless wanting a bad case of uveitis and a major migraine.

When she turns her back to the room, her stomach tightens even more.

I’m failing her once more. What a great friend you are.

“You were the first to rush to her side, barely had she touched the ground that you were kneeling next to her,” Alex explains.

“But when you tried to help her up, things got wrong. Lena, I promise that we reacted as fast as possible, but you know Kara’s super speed.”

The brunette let out a dry chuckle at that.

“As a Luthor, I can’t say that many kryptonians have entrusted me with such knowledge.”

Alex doesn’t gratify her jab with an answer.

“When we saw her holding on to you, we all thought it was for comfort,” Alex sighs, continuing her retelling. 

“As I said before, we knew that the phantom zone would have had some psychological impact. What we didn’t see coming is the potential of aggression that would result from all that.”

Lena feels the bruises under her neck brace pulsing anew, as if Kara’s hands were still trying to crush her throat. And if Alex’s avoidance to look at her directly is anything to go by, Lena suspects that the marks are even worse than she has imagined.

Kara has attacked me.

Lena feels sick just to think that, the antithesis far more painful than any physical injury she has ever endured.

“In the blink of an eye you were sprawled on the floor, Kara on top and throttling you.”

Alex’s complexion seems to go greener by the seconds as she finally reaches the plot twist of the events. And Lena feels almost bad to put her through this. 

Almost.

“J’onn immediately grabbed her, dragging her away from you, but Lena she was feral. We thought at first that she was confused, delirious even, after everything she went through. But she was coherent. She knew our names, referred to past events, all while cursing and fighting us.”

Despite the blinding lights in Kara’s room, Alex steps closer, trying to conciliate what she had witnessed and the loving image of her little sister.

Lena knows what that feels like. 

After all she had adored Lex, had put him on a pedestal for most of their life. He had been a kind and protective boy, and the only Luthor truly welcoming her in their now shared family. Until he wasn’t. Paranoia had erased any trace of that brother who had stood up for her and protected her from any harm coming her way, and had replaced it by an irrational fear of aliens, and ultimately mass murder.

It’s not the time to get lost in the past, get a hold of yourself Lena!

“We had to sedate her, and decided that it’s the safest option for us all at the moment,” Alex continues. “She will have time to heal, and may be her normal self next time she wakes up. Brainy is already working on the test results we’ve got, but most will take a few hours more. And, I can’t believe that I am saying this, it will also give us time to set up a room to contain her safely.”

Lena doesn’t know what to say to comfort the redhead. 

She feels sick at the idea of putting someone in a cage like a feral animal, ray-of-sunshine Kara all the more. But a rational part of her knows they don’t have much of a choice, an uncontrollable kryptonian would cause innumerable damages and casualties. Her concussion, damaged trachea and larynx all agree by throbbing more and more acutely.

Alex finally looks at her directly, her eyes more red and blotchy than she has ever seen.

“Let’s get you home, for now we can’t do anything but rest.”